Soprano Nicole Car on opera’s future, Parisian manners and keeping her voice in shape

Superstar soprano Nicole Car has a novel idea to ensure opera in Australia is appreciated by the TikTok generation – do what the French do …

Opera Australia's production of Rusalka stars Nicole Car. Picture: Supplied

As a soprano, how do you keep your voice in shape? There are silly things like ‘Oh, don’t eat chocolate’ or ‘I can’t eat cheese’, but I still believe you have to have a life. The truth is, you keep your voice in shape through a lot of training, practice, and discipline. One tip would be to rest – it sounds so silly – and the truth is I don’t do it!

Are you saying you find it hard to switch off? We don’t have microphones, we can only do maybe one show every two or three days, and so on the off days, you have to try to do a lot of relaxation. But I can remember when I made my debut in Paris, my son was two months old, and I was breastfeeding him in the dressing room, and then going out on stage, and then coming back and breastfeeding him. You can do it, but I wouldn’t recommend it!

With all of your various roles, as a performer, as co-artistic director of the L’Institut Canadien d’Art Vocal (ICAV) in Quebec, and a mother, how do you balance your workload? I don’t think I’ve found the best way to balance it yet. There are moments where I’m pulled so far apart, but then there are moments where all I have to do is get my son to school and finish learning a piece, and I think, ‘No wonder I feel so tired other weeks.’

Today, you’re one of the most in-demand vocalists in the world, but you didn’t see your first opera until you were 17. What can you remember about that first time? It was Tosca, and it was the State Theatre in Melbourne, and I sat in the back row, right at the top of the stalls. I describe it as being like a wave of orchestra and singing, and then it hit me. I decided then and there that it was what I wanted to do. It just kind of struck me as something necessary to our souls, to our beings.

Has there been a moment or a performance in your career that made you feel as if you’d ‘made it’? I get moments like that all the time. When I made my debut at the Royal Opera House [in October 2015, singing Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen], I remember I definitely felt like I had arrived. In the operatic world, people can be reluctant to take a chance on someone, so the fact that the Royal Opera House took a chance on me – it was a big deal. Again, with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and debuting in Paris and Milan.

Nicole Car. Picture: Heather Elizabeth

What’s the worst thing about living in Paris? Parisians can be a bit abrasive sometimes, and if your language skills are not up to par, you can feel really isolated. Thankfully, I speak French, so that’s fine. But, for someone who grew up reading Victor Hugo and Baudelaire, to live in the historic centre of France is really special. I also see a big difference between the musical education here [in Paris] and the education in Australia. The number of kids we see coming to the opera … I think it shows if you start them young, then a good percentage of them will keep coming.

After six years abroad, Opera Australia has lured you home to star in its production of Dvořák’s Rusalka. What’s the big challenge in this role? The challenge for me is relating it back to a young teenage love because it’s been a little while since I’ve had first-time love! She is a water nymph, and it’s her first time taking a step; it’s her first time feeling what skin is like. It’s very poetic.

How do you see the art form of opera maintaining relevance in the digital age? Regardless of everything that we see on social media, there is something so intrinsic about being able to have a face-to-face conversation with someone. It’s so connective to be in someone’s live presence. We have to have live connection. And you know, if you add music and singing to that, it’s visceral. Opera has to stay relevant because I don’t believe you can replicate the feeling it can give you, in any other form.

Opera Australia’s production of Rusalka runs from July 19 at the Sydney Opera House